Organizing and sickies.

Do you see that shine? I shined my sink today. Isn't she a beaut? I'm on Day One of the FlyLady's Beginner Steps to declutter the home. My job was to shine my sink, and I did a mighty fine job if I do say so myself. Tomorrow, my task is to get dressed, hair and makeup as soon as I wake up. And keep the sink shined. You know, my shiny sink makes me clean up dishes pretty quickly. I don't want to ruin its goodness.

My babies are sick. Including Joey.



It's been pretty hellish with Talula at night time, but they're all getting better. I think the way it works is that Mom holds out until everyone is better, then gets sick too, so I'm just waiting for it to hit me, but I'm Vitamin C-ing and Echinacea-ing myself and keeping my fingers crossed.

In homeschool news, Tania hates math even though she's really good at it, and loves history and language arts. We are learning about the Renaissance period. We got new science books and plan on getting a family membership to OMSI and the Oregon Zoo, but she's suspicious of science because it seems awfully learn-y.

Here are some pictures of the girls. Talula has become quite a ham with the camera.




Oh, we're also getting ready for Tania's birthday party! She'll be 8 years old. I can't believe it!

Nuthin' really exciting

Nothing terribly exciting has happened since the snow.

Lu is 7 months old now. Tania is loving soccer, and liking ice-skating, and is over judo. We've been studying, playing, and hanging out.

The weather has been warm (the 50s) and sunny. Today is the first grayish day I've seen for a while.

Well, here are some pictures:

Squatters in my room...



World's best babysitter...



A cutie-pie smiley face...



This is how you play with a kitty...



Here kitty, kitty...



The kitty goes for it...


Success!

Til next time, good day.

SNOW, SNOW, and more SNOW!!!

Holy crap! I woke up this morning, and as I was pouring my cup of coffee, I looked out the window and saw...



No, Mom, I did not drive your truck today.

Joey had gone to school early in the morning and the girls were still asleep. Holly and I went outside to investigate the scene. Our street looked like this on one side:


And this on the other side:



Holly was intrigued, yet cautious.



When I went inside the house, she refused to come with me. Later, I heard her meowing from underneath the truck, and I had to brave the flakes and rescue her.

I couldn't resist it any longer. I had to wake up Tania. She was a true soldier and immediately put on her snow gear.



At that very moment, Joey walked in through the door. School was canceled! Although he had been traveling by bus for three-and-a-half hours, he was finally home! We decided to go to the park, even though none of us had even eaten breakfast! (Well, Lu had.)



Boy, were we clever. We thought, "Oh my, why don't we go and slide down the huge hill at Brooklyn Park?" (My mom bought Tania the sled.) What an original idea!










But, oh my gosh, how much fun Tania had!







She played with her friend, R., and we went to True Brew and got coffee and hot chocolates.



What was Lu doing the whole time? Sleeping. (I don't know why I look so puffy and bloated.)


And that was our ultimate snow day.

Aside from that, we had our lovely and wonderful friend, E., come to visit us this glorious MLK, Jr. weekend. She and Tania went ice skating. Tania had to show E. the moves she's learned in her lessons.








Wow, other than snow and E. visiting us, I don't know what else to report. Poor Tania had to miss her beloved soccer today because we couldn't drive. Ummm...here is one other cute photo I can't resist putting up:


Tania had to show her who all the cool kids are.

Snow!!!

It snowed last night! Like, real substantial amounts of snow! We played in the snow at a golf course near our house.


Tania made snowballs and threw some at me.


We wrote her name really big in the snow.


It was so much fun!

So, we still don't have pictures of her ice-skating or doing any of her other activities, but it's sort of awkward to take pictures during class. She loooooves soccer though! She likes it more than ice-skating.

We have to run to Judo now, but here are a couple more pictures!

We're actually busy!

Wow. For the first time since we've been here, we're actually really busy! (With the exception of Joey, who has always been busy.)

Tania started ice skating last Wednesday. I am sorry to report that I didn't take any photos, because my camera ran out of batteries! Ugh. Well, I was sort of disappointed with the class. It's only 30 minutes long, and after the drama of driving to Lloyd Center, parking a behemoth truck in one of the compact parking spaces we are ever lucky enough to find, hustling out to sign in and get geared up, I couldn't believe how quickly the class flew by. They sort of herd the kids out, have them skate back and forth a couple of time, and then herd them back off the ice. Well, Tania made a little friend, so that's okay. Next time, we'll stay for the free skating after the class.

Then, she started Judo on Thursday at the Sellwood Community Center. It was mostly boys, but there were two girls, and Tania really liked the class. The sensei gave her a little sheet to practice her moves at home with. I hope she keeps up this class, because I'd really like to have a ninja daughter.

We had a playdate on Friday with another unschooler. It was fun, and Tania likes the girl a lot. She's older than Tania, and really mature, so I'm not sure how much fun she had with Tania, but she seemed to like her okay.

We had another playdate on Sunday with a girl Tania's age. Tania had a lot of fun with her. They seemed to get along very nicely, and they both didn't want for us to go home when it was time.

Tania is now reading Clarice Brown. She finished this really cool book called The Adventures of Despereaux. Her reading and vocabulary are expanding rapidly. She was reading me an article out of a National Geographic the other day, and I couldn't believe the words she was capable of reading. (Joey calls me a gypsy, because I steal magazines from doctor's offices and community centers. But really, if the magazine is more than a year old, it should be fair game.) I think that it's because she has so many hours to read each day.

Joey started school today. He left at 5:45 this morning and won't be home until 10:00 at night! This is his school schedule for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday! Then he works graveyard shifts Thursday through Saturday, plus his weekend morning job! He's going to be so exhausted all the time, and I'm going to be so sad and lonely.

Well, other than all that, I've been doing a good job sticking with my new study schedule. It has really helped to factor in time for spending with the girls and time for cleaning. Things are getting done. I'm so proud of myself.

We got this high chair from a friend. Talula loves it so much. She can sit with us for meals now. It's really cute. She's more interested in gnawing on a spoon than in eating actual food though.


Tania likes sitting with her too!


One more thing: If you ever get the chance to just sit and hold your baby while she sleeps, please do it. Time is going by so quickly. You don't have a long time to do this. So sometimes, even though you could put her down and get some things done, just hold her and kiss her and smell her sweet head. That's all.

First post of the new year! Yay!

Happy New Year!

I have been busy, as per my New Year resolutions. I have been getting up early in the morning to get chores done before Talula wakes up. I've been trying to spend quality time with Talula before Tania wakes up. Then I've been studying for the bar exam for a couple of hours, then spending about three hours doing something with Tania, then studying for a couple more hours. Then, I can go on the computer for two hours, but one hour of that has to be active writing. So, as you can see, I don't have much internet time these days.

Some of my resolutions are to:

-Stick with my bar study schedule
-Spend less time online
-Spend more meaningful time with the girls
-Spend more one on one time with Joey (chicka-bow...bow now now...)
-Exercise
-Eat healthier (we're doing vegan starting Monday, for one month)
-Get our finances in order
-Keep my house reasonably clean
-Not spend more than $400 per month on food
-Get Tania active socially and physically

Along the lines of that last one, Tania starts ice skating today! She's so excited. Tomorrow, she has Judo, and on Tuesday, she has soccer. I'll put up photos later.

Tania has been doing photo-shoots with Lu. Here's my fave:


Here's one I took of the girls:


I'm trying to become a gardener this year. All I have right now are a rosemary bush and an aloe plant, but I'm learning about them and they'll be the best loved rosemary bush and aloe plant you ever met. They even have names. Rosie and Ally. They sit together on the kitchen table. I learned that Rosie likes humidity, so she comes in the bathroom when we take showers. She likes her roots to be wet, but not soaking. Ally likes dryness, but she hates direct sunlight. She'll turn brown in protest if you let the sun hit her directly. Anyway, I hope to be able to grow more plants this spring.

Joey has been working on house in our neighborhood. He's learning a lot about the whole drywalling process right now. He's also written three songs in the past week or so. Is that hot or what?

Tania and I are building a miniature French city street out of milk cartons and paper maiche. It's super cute, and we're going online and looking up all kinds of things about France and learning French words and singing French songs.

That's about it for now. I can't wait to put up ice skating photos!